Privacy Policy

The ABA and its member banks believe that an individual's right to keep their personal information private is very important, and are committed to protecting and maintaining the privacy, accuracy and security of personal and financial information. Every ABA member has a Privacy Policy, which generally can be found on their home pages. The ABA’s Privacy Policy describes how we manage personal information that we may collect, hold, use or disclose for the purposes of our functions and activities.

Australian Bankers’ Association Privacy Policy

The ABA’s Privacy Policy describes how we manage personal information that we may collect, hold, use or disclose for the purposes of our functions and activities.

1. About the Australian Bankers’ Association

The Australian Bankers’ Association (“ABA”) is an unincorporated association which represents member banks that are authorised to carry on banking business in Australia.

The ABA serves its members in accordance with the ABA’s Mission Statement as well as its Constitution. The ABA, unlike its members, does not provide financial services to the public.

If you would like more information about the ABA itself, or if you would like a copy of the ABA’s Mission Statement, you can access the ABA’s website on www.bankers.asn.au, or contact the ABA directly (see “Contact details” below).

2. The ABA Privacy Policy

From 21 December 2001, the ABA considers it is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) and the National Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act. Our policy is to comply with the Privacy Act and that includes telling you about the ABA’s policies for managing personal information that we may collect, hold, use or disclose for the purposes of our functions and activities.

3. How is personal information collected?

As well as collecting personal information from you directly, we collect personal information from oral sources, from correspondence and other written material either sent to us or from publicly available sources of personal information such as newspapers, electronic media, records of proceedings and public registers.

4. What personal information does the ABA collect and hold?

The personal information we collect and hold may include your name title, date of birth, address, tax file number (where allowed by law to do so), other contact details and other information that we consider is necessary (such as information about your opinions, policies, statements and writings) so we can perform our legitimate functions and activities.

We will only collect sensitive personal information about you if we have your express or implied consent or if the law otherwise permits it.

5. Purposes of collecting, holding, using and disclosing personal information

Generally, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of pursuing our Mission Statement.

Specific purposes include:

to enable us to communicate with our members and other organisations and individuals that are party to the banking environment; and

to identify, understand and respond to policies, ideas, attitudes and opinions of those parties in representing the banks that are our members.

6. Disclosure of personal information

In line with common business practices, we may disclose personal information to:

our member banks;

those organisations as required or authorised by law; and

external parties such as:

your representatives, including your legal advisers;

our representatives, such as our legal advisers;

service providers such as printers and posting services and organisations involved in the provision and maintenance of our business systems and infrastructure; and

those organisations where you have given your consent.

Occasionally, these disclosures may occur outside Australia.

Where your personal information is disclosed, we will seek to ensure that the information is held, used or disclosed consistently with the National Privacy Principles and other applicable privacy laws and codes.

7. Management of personal information

We will keep your personal information securely, having regard to its nature and source. Arrangements are in place to safeguard the information against unauthorised access, modification and disclosure, and from loss and misuse.

We will destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information we are holding when it is no longer needed for the purpose for which we collected it. When we destroy your personal information we will ensure that this is carried out properly and securely.

We train our staff about the requirements of the Privacy Act and the need for compliance with the Privacy Act. Additionally, we have a designated person within our office, the Finance and Administration Manager, who is responsible for our overall compliance with the Privacy Act and this policy.

If you would like more information about how we manage your personal information please contact us (see “Contact details” below).

8. Access to personal information

At any time, you may request access to your personal information that we are holding (see “Contact details” below). You may ask us to correct your personal information if you believe it is incorrect or out of date.

Access is subject to some exceptions allowed by law. For example, where access would:

be unlawful;

pose a serious threat to the life or health of an individual;

have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;

involve disclosure of a commercially sensitive decision making process;

prejudice enforcement activities such as criminal proceedings or negotiations with you; or

We may also deny your request for access if it is frivolous or vexatious.

We will give you reasons if we deny your request.

9. Complaints about privacy

If you believe the ABA has breached its obligations under the Privacy Act, you may complain to the Finance and Administration Manager at the ABA.

You can make your complaint to the ABA’s Finance and Administration Manager by telephone, mail or fax (see “Contact details” below).

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 2 business days and will attend to your complaint and endeavor to resolve it within 14 business days.

If, after this, you are not satisfied with the outcome, you are entitled to complain to the Federal Privacy Commissioner.
The Privacy Commissioner can be contacted on 1300 363 992.

We are unable to handle or assist you with a privacy complaint involving a member bank. If you have a privacy complaint about a member bank, you should take up your complaint directly with the bank concerned.